The Doctor and her Cowboy pt 3
by reddneckin
Summary: When Lindsay West returned to Alaska, she never thought that she would see her old flame, Jonathan Hillstrand, much less fall in love with him again. The sexy captain once again has swept her off her feet. When the FDA calls and tells her that her clinical trial has been approved, she has some major decisions to make. How will this affect her future with Jonathan


Jonathan woke to the smell of coffee perking. He and Lindsay had been up half the night talking. He rolled over and stared at the ceiling. He was not accustomed to waking up to an empty bed. He tried to get Lindsay to sleep with him but she told him no. She opted to sleep in Scott's old bedroom. He stretched and yawned and sat on the edge of the bed. Lindsay had a CD playing, one of his favorite songs, Thunder Island by Jay Ferguson. The two of them had made some hot summer love to that song one summer. The memory made him smile, but then again, any memory of her made him smile. As he slipped into his jeans, he could hear her singing. She had an amazing voice.

"Morning" He walked over to the coffee pot and poured a cup. He leaned over and kissed her cheek. She had told him she was not ready for intimacy yet and he was trying his damndest to comply.

She had fixed a frittata and sausage for breakfast. The frittata was the best thing he had ever tasted. He really was not big on eggs, but this stuff was awesome.

"You sleep ok" He took a bite of the frittata . "This is good"

"Thanks. Yeah, I slept ok." Truth was, she had not slept a wink. They had finally goneto bed around 3am after digging up their time capsule. An old Archie comics book, a Bionic Man doll and a pledge they had written in blood that they would be with each other forever were its contents. Lindsay had cried when Jonathan pricked her finger. It was also the first time he kissed her. She tried to sleep, but tossed and turned all night. Her memories kept her awake.

"Get a shower and get dressed. I want to show you something. I will clean up"

Lindsay took a quick shower and dressed in a light grey Henley, her favorite black Wrangler jeans and a pair of of black ropers.

"Where are we going?' Lindsay fished a bottle of hand lotion from her purse. The cold was drying her hands out.

Jonathan smiled. She had always been impatient. "You'll see."

They pulled into the parking lot in front of the dock. There sat the Time Bandit , the boat Jonathan ran during crab season with his brother, Andy. She got out of the truck and leaned against the door. Leaning her head back she inhaled deeply. She had always loved that salty air smell. It was invigorating and intoxicating. She could remember when her dad's boat, The Sally Mae, would pull in loaded down with crab.

"You ready" Jonathans voice snapped her back to reality and she took his hand.

"Hey shithead." He yelled. Andy, his younger brother popped his head out of the wheelhouse window.

"Hey, would that be Lindsay Michelle West I see?" He bounded down the plank and onto the dock and swept her up into a bear hug. "How've you been sexy? Damn its been a long time"

"Its good to see you too Andy." Lord he was the spitting image of their dad.

"We ready?" Jonathan took a final drag off his Winston and thumped it over Andy's shoulder.

"Yep" Andy slapped him on the back, "She's all yours."

"What is he talking about?" Lindsay looked from Andy to Jonathan, back to Andy

"You'll see. Come on"

They walked toward the boat and Lindsay realized that he was expecting her to board. Even though she was raised around boats, she was terrified of the water. Jonathan knew it too , the jackass. He looked down at her and smiled, "Don't worry, we wont go out too far"

Lindsay stopped walking and folded her arms across her chest, "I am not getting on that boat" She looked at him sternly. What the hell was he thinking anyway.

"Oh yes, you are" Jonathan picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, walked down the dock and in one swift move, they were on the Time Bandit. He sat Lindsay down and she looked at him wide eyed.

"Now if you want to get off" Lindsay punched him in the shoulder "Oh you are such an ass" She yelled. "Lets just do whatever the hell it is you want to do"

They spent the afternoon sailing around Dutch Harbor. He had even let her drive the boat. They were lounged back in his captians chair, Lindsay dozing against his chest. She had not felt this relaxed, or secure, in a long time.

"You getting hungry baby?" Jonathans voice startled her awake. She looked up at the clock and realized it was almost 5. She stretched and rubbed her palm against her nose, a habit she had that Jonathan always thought was so damn cute. She looked like a little girl when she first woke up.

"Yeah, I am actually," Lindsay stood up. "I did not realize that it was getting so late. "

Jonathan docked the boat and they walked back to his truck. Lindsay's eyes traveled to an empty lot on the left side of the shipyard and a very bad memory emerged. She could not help but think of the night her parents died.

Lindsay use to look forward to summer vacation. It meant that Jonathan would be back in town. When his parents divorced, his mom moved him and his five brothers to Iowa. They stayed with her until school got out, and then spent the summers with their dad. The summer before their senior year, things had started to get more serious between the two of them. After the July 4th picnic, Jonathan took Lindsay to Matt's Point, one of the most beautiful mountain cliffs in their hometown and proposed to her. She accepted and they made love for the first time.

Jonathan took her home, really not wanting the night to end. They sat in his car for a while before finally getting out and walking around to open the door for her. He noticed that the front door was wide open, and told Lindsay to stay in the car. He walked up the driveway and into the house. He would never forget what he saw.

Lindsay's mom was laying face down on the living room floor, a single gunshot wound to the back of her head. Her father, slumped down in the recliner, had also been shot. Jonathan picked up the phone first calling the sheriff, and then his dad.

Lindsay had stood in the cemetery, Jonathan on one side of her, and Andy on the other, still in a state of disbelief as to what had happened. Someone had murdered her parents. Mr Hillstrand, Jonathans dad, had told her that she was staying with them until the murder was solved. She could not cry, she did not feel anything. Jonathan had tried more than once to comfort her. She told Mr Hillstrand that maybe if she had been home, this never would have happened. He told her that if she had been home, they might have killed her too.

"You ok." Jonathan made Lindsay jump, as she wiped tears from her face.

"Yeah, I was just thinking about that July 4th picnic. Sometimes I would love to have that memory permanently erased.."

Jonathan smiled at her" But not all of it right?'' He pulled her close and hugged her. He knew what a hard time that was for her. Her life had changed forever that day.

"Come on, lets go eat. I'm starving"

Jonathan took her to a little seafood shack on the boardwalk. Just after they sat down, Lindsay's cell phone rang. It was the FDA.

"Hey, I have got to take this." She stood up and walked outside She had submitted a clinical trial to find a cure for Alzheimers Disease. The FDA had approved it.

Jonathan watched her walk out the door. The waitress came with two cold draft beers and sat them on the table. When she turned to walk away, the sleeve of her shirt caught on something, and it fell on the floor. She bent to pick it up. It was a necklace that had been laying on the table that Lindsay had pulled out of her purse when she reached for her cellphone.

"Thanks." Jonathan nodded to the waitress and took a sip from his beer. "We will order as soon as she comes back"

Jonathan took a closer look at the necklace on the table. He picked it up and held it in front of him. Dangling from it, was an engagement ring.

Lindsay came back inside and sat down. She picked her beer up and took a sip. Jonathan was glaring at her.

"What, " she looked at him with a puzzled look as he reached across the table, his hand closed, and laid the necklace down in front of her.

"Where did you find that"

"Fell out of your purse when you got your phone out I guess. Waitress found it on the floor"

"You kept that all these years?" Jonathan sat back, looked up at the ceiling and sighed. It was the engagement ring he had given her. She still had it after 20 years.

Lindsay nodded as tears welled up in her eyes. About that time, their waitress walked over to the table.

"We will take the order to go" Jonathan said and stood up.

They rode back to his house in silence. A cold rain had started to fall, which was perfect as far as Lindsay was concerned. It matched her mood. All of a sudden, she was not hungry at all. She really just wanted, at this moment, to crawl into a hole and stay there. Lindsay had some big decisions to make.

They pulled in to the driveway, and Jonathan cut the engine. Lindsay put her head against the seat, tears rolling down her face. Did she really want to move back here? This was a huge step, and one of those times when she really wished her Mama was still here.

"Come on. Let's go eat" Jonathan opened the drivers side door and got out. He walked around to her side, and opened the door for her. She did not even look up at him when she got out.

"You want to tell me what that phone call was about?" He sat a glass of wine in front of her, she proceeded to pick it up and down the whole glass in one huge gulp.

"That was the FDA. " She stared down at the table, "My clinical trial was approved" Lindsay sat back and sighed. Why the hell did this have to happen now.

"You are going to have to explain. I don't understand all that medical shit" Jonathan took a bite of shrimp scampi"

Lindsay explained to him that she had submitted the trial that she had been working on for 10 years and the FDA had approved it.

"Hey, that's great right" Jonathan tried his best to perk her up, but it was not working.

"I was also offered a job at Anchorage Medical. I would be making triple what I am making now. They offered me Chief of Staff, and head of the research team." She got up and walked to the window. The rain had turned to snow.

Jonathan walked up behind her, and wrapped his arms around her. She turned around and wrapped her arms around his neck and began to sob.

"Hey, " he pulled her back and turned her face up so she was looking at him. "What's this?"

She shook her head,. She came back here to do her job, not fall in love with Jonathan Hillstrand all over again.

"I am confused. I don't know what to do. I don't know whether to shit or go sailing. This was not suppose to happen"

"What wasn't suppose to happen? You are talking in circles…."

"I wasn't suppose to fall in love with you AGAIN!" Lindsay walked out the back door. It was snowing like hell and freezing cold, but she did not care.

Jonathan walked outside behind her.

"Get your ass back inside, its freezing out here."

"I don't care. " He spun her around to face him.

"Well, I do. You are not gonna catch pneumonia out here."

He took her back inside, and built a fire in the fireplace. He walked into the bedroom, brining a quilt out that he wrapped her up in.

Jonathan knelt in front of her and kissed her. She did not turn away from him this time. She had missed this. She just didn't realize how much until now.

"Why did you keep that ring all these years? I figured you had sold it or it was in the bottom of the Gulf by now"

"I never took it off. I would put it on that necklace when I was in surgery. I never got over you Jonathan. Never. I have never loved anyone like you."

Jonathan crawled up on the couch beside her and kissed her again. Right there, in front of the fireplace, they made love for the first time in 20 years. Jonathan had forgotten how good she felt, how soft she was. What a damn wildcat she was in the sack. She fell asleep, in his arms.

They woke the next morning, the fire still going. Jonathan had gotten up a few times and stoked the fire to keep them warm.

"Morning doc.' Jonathan smiled and gave her a long slow kiss.

"Mornin cowboy," Lindsay ran her hands through his hair. Not a grey one in the whole bunch. Even though he had to be knocking on 50, this man was still sexy as hell.

"You hungry?"

Lindsay looked at him and smiled, "Starving. But what do you say we work up a hearty appetite first." Jonathan grinned and slid under the blanket beside her.

They showered together, something that Lindsay had missed. She had always loved his backrubs, even though they proved to be lethal. If she was tired, that always put her right to sleep.

"Well, what's on the agenda for today captain" Lindsay asked him as she pulled a brown T-shirt over her head that bore the words, "Don't mess with Texas"

Jonathan walked over to the nightstand and picked up the necklace that had been laying there. He unhooked the clasp, and let the 2 carat diamond engagement ring fall into his palm. He knew better than to think that he could get down on one knee. He was too damn old for that. He sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled her to him.

"Well, for starters doc, why don't we put this back where it belongs. " He slid the ring on her left hand. "Will you marry me."

To Be Continued


End file.
